Prosecutors Use Videos Against O.j.

July 19, 1995|By JESSICA SEIGEL Chicago Tribune

LOS ANGELES - — O.J. Simpson's work as a pitchman came back to haunt him on Tuesday when jurors watched him joke about punching "the wife" while taping an exercise video, and swear to his good health in a juice drink testimonial.

In the workout video made three weeks before his former wife's murder, Simpson strayed from the script during outtakes of an air-punching sequence.

"I'm telling ya, you just gotta get your space in if you're working out with the wife, if ya know what I mean. You could always blame it on, uh, working out," Simpson quipped.

The impromptu remarks were from the O.J. Simpson Minimum Maintenance Fitness for Men video that showed Simpson squatting, lunging, doing push-ups and marching in place.

Defense attorney Robert Shapiro argued that the remark proved nothing because it was made with a smile. Judge Lance Ito, however, allowed Simpson's quip into evidence.

With jurors showing little reaction, the videotape was played during a devastating prosecution cross-examination of the doctor who saw Simpson twice in the week after the murders.

With the defense portraying Simpson as physically unable to commit the double homicide, Dr. Robert Huizenga had testified that the sports legend walked like "Tarzan's grandfather" because of old football injuries and arthritis.

After the videotape was played, prosecutor Brian Kelberg suggested that Simpson had been faking a limp during his medical exam.

While ultimately agreeing with prosecutors that Simpson was physically capable of the violent stabbing murders, Huizenga insisted that the videotape still showed his disabilities.

But jurors then heard Simpson claim in a videotaped motivational speech made in late March 1994, three months before the murders, that drinking "Juice Plus" cured his arthritis pain.

Asked what he made of Simpson's speech, Huizenga said that sports figures often make false claims about products.

TRIAL SUMMARY

-- WHAT'S NEXT: Former tow truck driver John Meraz returns to the witness stand. A discovery hearing on an expert's report on blood spatters on socks found at the foot of O.J. Simpson's bed was delayed until today.

DEVELOPMENTS TUESDAY

-- ATTORNEYS CLASH: Defense attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. and prosecutor Christopher Darden clashed over questions that could be asked of police officer Donald Thompson, who testified about how he handcuffed Simpson during his arrest the day after the killings.

-- HAIR CARE: Barber Juanita Moore said she has cut Simpson's hair for 16 years. She testified she never tinted or dyed his hair and said he had dandruff occasionally, particularly in the off-season when he was playing golf instead of football.